Subi wins battle of Leederville

Five goals to Josh Smith were not enough as Subiaco recorded their first victory of 2013, downing the Royals by 15 points.

In the third annual Good Friday game, the Lions 16.8 (104) outscored East Perth 13.11 (89).

The Royals started the game brilliantly kicking the opening three goals, before Subiaco got their first after a long bomb from Brett Mahoney.

The Lions started to lift and kicked the next three goals through Rhett Kerr, Ryan Herring and Jarrod Kayler-Thomson.

With the last kick of the quarter Dean Cadwallader managed to pull one back for East Perth but they still remained four points behind at the first change.

Myles Smythe kicked the opening goal of the second quarter to extend Subiaco’s lead to 10 points.

Chris DeLuca then gifted Aaron Sweet a goal when he gave away a 50 metre penalty before Jacob Payne laid a magnificent tackle and was rewarded with a shot on goal which he converted. This put East Perth back in front by four points.

However Josh Smith pulled one back for the Royals but they still trailed the Lions by seven points at the main break.

Smith took a magnificent one handed mark early on in the third quarter and kicked truly to bring the margin back to one point.

The Lions then kicked five out of the next six goals of the match to set up a 29 point lead at three quarter time.

Cameron Grover kicked the all important first goal of the last quarter to keep East Perth in the contest.

Clancy Wheeler then kicked two quick goals for the Lions before the Royals went forward but could only manage to kick three points.

George Hampson went to the other end of the ground and did what East Perth couldn’t and kicked truly to extend Subiaco’s lead to a game high 36 points.

Late goals to Josh Smith and Jacob Payne added some respectability to the score board for the Royals but it was simply too little too late.

In his first game back since the 2011 Grand Final, Brad Stevenson was handy up forward with three goals. After the match he said he was happy to be back and pleased with the way he played but there was still room for improvement.

“I’ve been pretty confident over the last two months that I could come back and perform at this level and perform well. I’ll just keep plugging away, working hard, there’s still a lot of areas that I need to work on.”

Brett Mahoney had 31 possessions and was assisted by Jarrod Kayler-Thomson (29), George Hampson (23) and Chris Phelan (23). Jason Bristow had the ball 19 times and managed to lay an impressive 12 tackles.

Aaron Sweet had the ball 34 times for East Perth and was helped by Brendan Lee (31), Garry Moss (22) and Cale Morton (18).

Next week Subiaco travel to East Fremantle Oval on Saturday to take on the Sharks.

First Quarter

East Perth kicked the first three goals of the game before Subiaco kicked four of the next five goals. Brett Mahoney had 10 disposals for the Lions and Aaron Sweet also had 10 for the Royals.

Second Quarter

Four goals to three ensured that Subiaco maintained their lead at half time. Jarrod Kayler-Thomson and Mahoney both had 17 disposals while Jason Bristow had 12 disposals and had laid 9 tackles.

Third Quarter

Brad Stevenson got some reward for his hard work in the first half and kicked two goals in the third quarter. The Lions kicked five for the term to East Perth’s two.

Fourth Quarter

East Perth had plenty of opportunities to get back into the match but was wasteful, kicking 4.8 in the last quarter to Subiaco’s three goals.